Spanda

Spanda

"trembling", "pulsation", "vibration"

One of the most important concepts in the philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism, denoting the primary cosmic vibration of energy.

The founder of the doctrine of Spanda is Vasugupta (9th century).

Spanda is a symbol and result of the union or combination of two principles: the light of Shiva's consciousness – Prakasha, and the dynamic self-reflection of this consciousness – Vimarsha, identified with Shakti. The pulsation of Spanda is not of a physical or psychic nature, but occurs at the level of the spiritual essence, simultaneously inward and outward. The movement inward is the state of the Absolute, resting in itself, the movement outward is the creation of the manifested world. Spanda is present in any living being, since the nature of individual consciousness is not different from the Absolute.

Obviously, everything existing and transcendental is one Spanda – these are different gradations of pulsations, and the levels of this pulsation cannot be described by any schemes, since the scheme is less chaotic in its essence, it is fixed. And the effectiveness of spanda-tattva is that it is not fixed, this gives it a supra-mental character, i.e. vritti (thought forms) of consciousness cannot receive some support from some structure, since everything becomes more chaotic, and the perceived order behind this is difficult for standard definitions.

See more detailed description in the article Spanda.